OPINION: For the first time in 50 years of playing and reporting on rugby, I have reservations about encouraging children to take up the sport. For many years, I would shrug after a catastrophic injury such as afflicted the likes of former England and...

OPINION: For the first time in 50 years of playing and reporting on rugby, I have reservations about encouraging children to take up the sport. For many years, I would shrug after a catastrophic injury such as afflicted the likes of former England and Leicester prop Matt Hampson, sympathise, of course, but conclude that the good bits in rugby outweigh the bad by a factor of 99 per cent. That position, some might call it naive, is now more difficult to maintain.